The Death March at Gingko Petrified Forest

I, like many people I'm sure, have a "bucket list". A list of things I want to do between now and the day I die.  My list, for the most part, is small. It consists, right now, of things that are very achievable if only they were planned and scheduled.  This "bucket list" started several years ago between Blueberry, HikerGirl and I.  We didn't get very much done in that year because Blueberry and I were training for the 3Day. Since that year, I've still not marked too many off.

Having 100 days off I knew this would be the time to check off at least a couple. 

Saturday, Blueberry and I checked off visiting Gingko Petrified Forest. Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park contains the remains of one of the most unusual fossil forests in the world. Many of the petrified logs are still in their original locations and on this "nature walk" to see them.  How hard could a nature walk be? Hah!

Blueberry, Sparky, Puck and I took off out of Redmond about 10:30am. We wanted to take the scenic route since having a convertible means you HAVE to take the scenic route. We hopped off the interstate at Cle Elum and hopped on a highway that took us through some of the most beautiful countryside in Washington.  We rounded a corner and WHAM suddenly we had windmills...Don Quixote would be busy in this part of the woods.

I've seen these beasts from the interstate before, but I never realized just how big they truly are. And there are dozens of them out here. 

We drove on and found ourselves at the Gingko Trail for the Petrified forest.  I had read about some petroglyphs here that I wanted to see and of course shoot photos of.  We realized then we hadn't purchased a park pass and so we drove the rest of the way to the Gingko Petrified Forest Museum where we could purchase our park pass.

The museum had some interesting information in it, none of which I read. Blueberry read most of it. We potty-ed and set out again to the forest.  Parked Sparky and started the "nature walk".   By this time is 2:30pm in the afternoon in Eastern Washington - which for those of you not from around here Eastern Washington's weather in the summer is usually hot, dry and HOT. Did I mention it was hot?

So water bottle in hand, camera bag over the shoulder we struck out.  The first quarter to half a mile was uphill. ALL uphill.  I was dying. It was 95F outside - breezy as Eastern Washington is - but Holy Hades it was hot.  I was dying.  I started to forget about the stupid petrified logs and just wish the death march was over.  And we had chosen the shorter of the two trails - still it was what felt like a lifetime before we started down again. 

This is a view from the trail. Do you see a "forest"? Yah me neither. The sage brush does not a forest make.  There's smoke off in the distance as there was a brush fire in Coulee City by Grand Coulee Dam.

I stopped at one point and sat while Blueberry trudged on to see the rest of these "trees".
 

All the trees/logs were in these grate like thingy's and really hard to see or photograph.  But they made a good chair for those of us who needed to stop for a breather. The stone was super hot, but it felt good to sit and catch my breath.

We drove back down to Vantage after the Death March to get some refreshments and salty snacks.  We'd sweated so much both of us were craving salt in the worst way.

Vantage is a beautiful area to me. The Columbia river is so beautiful and cuts through the landscape with such grace.

Back into Sparky we headed another highway back to Cle Elum to have dinner at the restaurant my niece works in.

All in all it was a great day. We had a blast and have some fantastic memories to recall in our later years in life.

In other news, tonight was the one year anniversary of Sunday Dinners. VERY small crowd - BigBro, Seattle Sister In Law, the Pantry Goat and Blueberry.  I made a ravioli dish and these fancy pants cupcakes that were to die for.

This week marks 4 weeks until I have to return to the work force.  I have an awful lot to do before then. I'd better get busy.